Deadspin
It is clear, at this point, that the Mavericks-Warriors series is hazardous to the health of anyone happening to be watching at home. What a travesty that these beautiful, crazed, maddening games are ending so late; it's impossible to watch this series and not think the NBA might be the most league on the planet.
We thought Bill Simmons' pregame breakdown of this series was rather dead-on — whatever criticism Simmons might receive, the guy knows his NBA — and until the last three minutes, you had to wonder if Dirk Nowitzki would retire post-game, because he clearly would be too ashamed to show his face in public again. And then ... he woke up, and a series that had, in just five games, covered just about every possible subplot added one more.
This is a series we desperately do not want to end, and we're already counting down the minutes — just 36 hours until it goes batshit crazy in Oakland again tomorrow night — until it fires back up again. That's too much time to wait. We suspect no matter what happens the rest of the way, this is the series from these NBA Playoffs that everyone will remember. And we're still only five games in.
Game 5: Warriors 112, Mavs 118 - We Got To Pray... [Golden State Of Mind]
Sorry, Dirk, You're No MVP [Bill Simmons]
Comments
This series has me watching and caring about the NBA again for the first time in 9 years.
"it's impossible to watch this series and not think the NBA might be the most league on the planet."
Most what? most what???
I finally am interested in an NBA finals series, crazy!
Also, NBA is the "most league on the planet?"
Maybe it's just "the most" and it's 1956.
missing adjective in the 1st paragraph?
at this point, dirk should wear a fedora with a shotgun shell on the brim.
Yeah, this series has just been crazy insane. These teams are clearly not liking each other the more they play, and it shows.
Plus, it helps when behind both benches last night there were these blazing blonds in the stands.
@Technicolor Jan Stenerud: I see where you're going with that, but no man should wear a fedora. Ever.
deadspin is the most website on the internet.
Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger DEMANDS that this series move back to California for Game 6. Get to duh Choppuh!
so, Simmons will return the favor with a link, right?
right?
Once his basketball career ends Jason Terry has a job waiting for him in professional wrestling.
That was a sweet DDT.
I will now make a longshot prediction: Oracle Arena will be very loud on Thursday.
Simmons mostly knows the NBA, he's totally incapable of being objective about the teams he roots for, note the piece about the Celtics having ALL GOOD GUYS days before the most recent and totally predictable Telfair incident.
@Little Wooden Boy:
Blazing Blonds indeed... the only problem is that they both have a thing for Rich Eisen
@Lady Andrea: Wait a minute - Urban Dictionary defines League thusly:
(Israeli Slang) an adjective, used to define something really good.
Sarit: Soul, how're my new boots?
Nofit: League, my sister!
So in this case league is an adjective rather than a noun. The NBA is the most league, Andrea. It's the most fucking league.
@Jerkwheat: I wonder if ESPN reciprocates links to deadspin with mirrors from porn sites. So when Will checks the analytics, he finds out 55% of his traffic is coming from fuckmystump.com.
@Drederick Tatum: well, who doesn't?
Is Will trying to say something about Ralph Malph?
Spectacular Sam, it's the most #### league on the planet. Just ask John Amaechi.
@Lady Andrea: *raises hand*
@JebusHChrist: What about Dan Steinberg and the Bog?
Or, Gil Arenas?
Both are the most at fedora wearing.
I AM THE MOST COMMENTER ON ALL THE WEBS!!
fill in the blank. go ahead.
I blame this series for making me sleep late this morning and getting to work late. And it's worth it.
@Poppa Perk: *shakes head*
So when Cuban re-enacts "Falling Down" all over the Dallas metroplex, does Nellie finally get his money?
I blame DU!AN for making me sleep late this morning and getting to work drunk. And it's worth it.
Altered.
My passion for the NBA was almost revitalized. I thought, what the hell? I'll stay up till 12:30 and see if the Warriors can do it. Alas, it was clear the NBA still determines the outcomes of the games when Dirk hacked the shit out of JRich on his three for a no call and then Baron Davis gets called for his sixth. Joey Crawford would have made that call.
"most league" is the new, hip-hop slang for "togetherness"... either that or it's an obscure reference to a unit of measure commonly used in the 19th century.
This is simply a series that shows why pro wrestling has more credibility than the NBA, nothing else.
klemmer +6
No. I still can't bring myself to care. Any league where under .500 teams can get in the playoffs is dead to me.
@fynalcutDwiGuy: Don't forget the Terry takedown. He should've been tossed for that, even if there was flopping involved.
@MitchKayak: Will this rule apply when it happens in the NFL next year?
@TastesLikeBurning: Where the hell does this flopping thing come from, anyway? I'm not the most enough to know.
@TastesLikeBurning: And the best part was Avery Johnson mouthing "What did he DOOO?" No wonder Crawford hears voices.
@JebusHChrist: Excellent point.
There was another game played yesterday, wasn't there? Something about a team staving off elimination despite getting squat from its star, losing its starting point guard to a neck injury, almost blowing a 20-point lead and hanging on by a thin thread behind a bunch of gutty Europeans and its longest-serving player?
@JebusHChrist: Yes. Parity sucks. Unless of course the Bills get into the playoffs. Then all rules are off.
@Mob Penguin: I'm not sure either. Consider it the wrath of Vlade.
True Hoop's been talking about it lately though. Sixth item:
http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-24-2/Tuesday-Bullets...
College golf has a .500 rule.
Kid Canada: I have a theory that Canada is trying to stage a sports invasion of New Jersey (god knows why). Toronto's team playing Jersey's in basketball and Ottawa's team playing Jersey's in hockey? Maybe not a coincidence.
@Kid Canada: Or, hanging on by a thin thread while watching the series-clinching shot bounce off the rim just after missing a big free throw?
N-B-A?
Went out of business in, like, 1998, right?
@MitchKayak: exactly. I hate seeing teams back into the playoffs, til it's my team. Hee hee.
@Kid Canada:
MoPete is the man. That is all.
@Lady Andrea:
Boo Cardinals of 2006! Boo!!!!
@klemmer35: I've seen the script. I think I recall: Dallas winning in seven. Fans flocking back like lemmings. A boring finals series.
@Kid Canada: Tim Hardaway doesn't like the Nets.
@ILovePaleHoseandPaleHos: No, no no - that was the N-H-L. The NBA just went to Europe for a while
@Mob Penguin:
All in all a good theory until the part about New Jersey.. There gonna succeed, take over and then go right the hell back to Canada, cept maybe for a couple of weeks at the shore each summer
Only one NBA playoff team had an under .500 record and two of them had .500 records, meaning 15 of the league's 18 playoff teams had better-than-.500 records in an admittedly weak year. Last year, same thing. Year before that, no examples. In a league with 30 teams, since more than half of them go to the playoffs, the number of sub or at .500 playoff teams isn't bad at all.
@G Voll the Mole:
Bosh had another awful game and they still won. My concern is that Darrick Martin might be starting at the point on Friday.
@BigTenObsession: eh. I'll cry myself to sleep cluthing my world series DVDs.
@